Worst case, it'll just be a rebranding of WRC as V-Rally, maybe like the Valentino Rossi MotoGP game.

Or they no longer have the WRC license, as I can't think why a company would release 2 competing products around the same time of year...

I don't think that's the case to be honest. I mean, the WRC official licence is very relevant in rally games, whereas the V-Rally franchise isn't as known, expecially because the last installation in it released in 2003 (when many potential buyers were to young to play it )The Valentino Rossi the Game rebranding sort of worked because (and as an Italian I might be biased here) the Vr|46 brand is almost as huge and famous as the championship itself

"I race to win, of course. But even before of winning, I race to race. As fast as possible"- Gilles Villeneuve

Maybe they're extending the development window on the WRC games, filling the gaps with an arcade game just like Forza Motorsport and Horizon? So V-Rally in 2018, WRC in 2019, V-Rally in 2020 etc.

I haven't been paying attention to the WRC release schedule, but Forza was always on a 2 year dev cycle.It's just now theres also Horizon, which is also on a 2 year dev cycle and fills the gap in between. Have the WRC games been on 2 year cycles? they seem to kind of pump out games pretty quickly that I don't pay attention to.

Maybe they're extending the development window on the WRC games, filling the gaps with an arcade game just like Forza Motorsport and Horizon? So V-Rally in 2018, WRC in 2019, V-Rally in 2020 etc.

I haven't been paying attention to the WRC release schedule, but Forza was always on a 2 year dev cycle.It's just now theres also Horizon, which is also on a 2 year dev cycle and fills the gap in between. Have the WRC games been on 2 year cycles? they seem to kind of pump out games pretty quickly that I don't pay attention to.

No, they've been on a one year cycle, but I can't imagine that would change and they alternate with V Rally.

I thought they had at least one year left, but if the V Rally rumours are true, I imagine it's because they don't have the WRC licence any more.

Maybe they're extending the development window on the WRC games, filling the gaps with an arcade game just like Forza Motorsport and Horizon? So V-Rally in 2018, WRC in 2019, V-Rally in 2020 etc.

I haven't been paying attention to the WRC release schedule, but Forza was always on a 2 year dev cycle.It's just now theres also Horizon, which is also on a 2 year dev cycle and fills the gap in between. Have the WRC games been on 2 year cycles? they seem to kind of pump out games pretty quickly that I don't pay attention to.

If anything, Forza could use 3 or 4 years of development if they really want to create a fresh product. But yeah, I don't think WRC is dropping of the yearly releases either. I could imagine that the license is too expansive not to release every year, so I think V-Rally will either be a replacement for their current WRC franchise because it's too expansive for them, or just a matter of registering the brand now so that they can use it in the future when their WRC license ends in a few years.

Another interesting theory would be the Kunos announcement that is taking place in a week. I don't see them build a full off-road project, but maybe they're getting the F1 license for 2018 or 2019? If so, that would free up some money and manpower at Codies which would make the arrival of the WRC license here a bit more realistic as well.

I guess it could be any of the above. Both Codemasters (Dirt Rally) and Milestone (Seb Loeb Rally Evo) were working on real life WRC stages in case they won the license (not so sure about Milestone though, as they were outgoing from the license at that point)... only time will tell.

It could have gone elsewhere though. Gran Turismo had WRC before, as did Sega Rally 3 arcade.

It's just ironic that Codemasters have a great rally team PLUS own the developers of the old PS2 rally games (Evolution Studios) yet don't make an official game! Imagine taking Dirt Rally and making it full WRC, gradually adding more and more real-life stages...

I think V-Rally will either be a replacement for their current WRC franchise because it's too expansive for them, or just a matter of registering the brand now so that they can use it in the future when their WRC license ends in a few years.

Another interesting theory would be the Kunos announcement that is taking place in a week. I don't see them build a full off-road project, but maybe they're getting the F1 license for 2018 or 2019? If so, that would free up some money and manpower at Codies which would make the arrival of the WRC license here a bit more realistic as well.

I think that's the case. The publisher is preparing for V-Rally 4 launch when the WRC licence expires, because they probably feel they have enough knowledge and reputation to be able to make a game on their own without having to pay a very costly licence as the WRC is. I don't think Kunos are looking into offroad or any particular licence, they've been talking about Assetto Corsa 2 for quite some time now so I think it's about that.

"I race to win, of course. But even before of winning, I race to race. As fast as possible"- Gilles Villeneuve

Maybe they're extending the development window on the WRC games, filling the gaps with an arcade game just like Forza Motorsport and Horizon? So V-Rally in 2018, WRC in 2019, V-Rally in 2020 etc.

I haven't been paying attention to the WRC release schedule, but Forza was always on a 2 year dev cycle.It's just now theres also Horizon, which is also on a 2 year dev cycle and fills the gap in between. Have the WRC games been on 2 year cycles? they seem to kind of pump out games pretty quickly that I don't pay attention to.

If anything, Forza could use 3 or 4 years of development if they really want to create a fresh product. But yeah, I don't think WRC is dropping of the yearly releases either. I could imagine that the license is too expansive not to release every year, so I think V-Rally will either be a replacement for their current WRC franchise because it's too expansive for them, or just a matter of registering the brand now so that they can use it in the future when their WRC license ends in a few years.

Another interesting theory would be the Kunos announcement that is taking place in a week. I don't see them build a full off-road project, but maybe they're getting the F1 license for 2018 or 2019? If so, that would free up some money and manpower at Codies which would make the arrival of the WRC license here a bit more realistic as well.

Honestly, the main Motorsport series has just gotten disappointing. The Horizon games so far have all been excellent, and been the ones to push the boundaries for the Motorsport to move forward. Not a bad approach actually.I don't think giving Forza a longer dev time will do much other than add more content. The half baked career and god awful microtransactions they've shoved in would still be there. I'm not sure what else would be added that isn't already. Any missing "features" at this point just isn't happening.

I wish Kunos just muted people from the forums instead of banning them for stupid reasons. I can't even see what's happening with something I paid for because I said it was ugly? That being said, I highly doubt Kunos is getting the F1 license UNLESS Codies is actually dropping it, but if I know correctly the latest one went over pretty well, so I don't know why they would.*Edit, GTPlanet cites that Codies, Forza, WRC7, and... Race of champions? have all announced an eSports thing, so maybe AC is joining in, and finally adding leaderboards.

I Know they Would, Ian said few times, He Wants to make very competive Rally game, with deformation of ground (road deformation)Even next realese of PCars3 is minimum 2 years ahead.But now after sign a Fast and Fourius licence for next 6 years (to compete the NFS series ) may be to much task..i dont think they would do WRC Rally game now?Its still Kylotonn or Codies (if thats the case i hope they can keep old Rally cars in Game)

Hmm, looks like smoke with no fire to me. What kind of a record does this website have with this kind of information? Its use of lazy, machine-translation for foreign visitors, combined with its lackluster aesthetic, don't inspire confidence in me that this could be anything true. I'd be, honestly, very surprised if I was wrong.

That v-rally stiff is very intriguing. After the huge steps they made with WRC7, I would be surprised if they weren't making WRC8, but that would basically be the release date for that if it were going to come. I just ran a whois on the domain v-rally4.com and that confirms that BigBen own it.

Strange. Something doesn't add up.

Now this is more interesting. Typing 'www.v-rally4.com' into the browser gets you redirected to 'vrallygame.com'. This style of naming is very common for modern game sites. And yes, that domain is owned by BigBen Interactive, which is curious. Again, though, I think we have smoke without fire. BigBen is probably registering these domains in order to have options, for the future, if they try to make such a game, emphasis on the 'if '.

If there were a V-Rally 4 in development, that would be awesome, but who would be developing it? Not Milestone because of Gravel. Not Kylotton because they handle the yearly WRC titles. I don't see Codemasters behind it either, if they were doing another another rally intensive game they'd just call it DiRT Rally 2 and it wouldn't be published by BigBen. Another one mentioned here is Slightly Mad Studios, which have indeed shown intention of making a rally game apart from their main series. However, as another user mentioned, they do have a contract for Fast & Furious, add to that the fact that they plan on supporting PCARS 2 until, at least, August/September of this year and they're out. Who's left, really? A new dev team? I don't see it.

If only AC had decent non tarmac surface modeling. Also for rallying rain etc play a role. Not to mention day/ night cycle. Non of these is supported by AC as far as I know. If AC started supporting those, then above tech is all I need. I don't care about graphics nowdays TBH.

If only AC had decent non tarmac surface modeling. Also for rallying rain etc play a role. Not to mention day/ night cycle. Non of these is supported by AC as far as I know. If AC started supporting those, then above tech is all I need. I don't care about graphics nowdays TBH.

Yeah, but as someone else said, without junctions or landmarks the stages basically just becomes winding endless roads that just seem artificial.

He says on the website that it could theoretically be made to work with different games that support modding besides AC. Not sure what better options there might be, but I'd be happy to use it with BeamNG